by Catherine Heeg
Thursday September 24, 2020

Are you on the fence about blogging? Tourism colleagues tell you that a blog is essential. ‘Experts’ say you have to blog if you want to grow your…

The increased prevalence of leisure road trips this year is leading one company to begin working more aggressively with travel professionals, offering self-drive tours and door-to-door driving instruction with local attraction and activity information along the route. American Tours International (ATI) has long been a primary tour resource for AAA clubs nationwide, and is now working with the wider travel professional community. ATI -DriveAmerica offers a wide variety of itineraries, along with guaranteed hotel accommodations throughout the client's entire trip, commissionable to travel professionals.

For example, a one-week drive vacation for a couple and their children would average approximately $2,000 commissionable. If joined by other extended family members or friends, the booking can jump to as high as $10,000 total, depending on…

Something has been on my mind for days, and today is the day I am going to get it off my chest. It involves the connection between a daily crossword puzzle and running a successful travel business. (Yes, as we age the mind works in funny ways.)

A few years back, I was introduced to the online version of USA Today’s Crossword Puzzle. It is the same one that appears in the daily paper edition. This was a new experience for me and, in the beginning, I found it very difficult to arrive at the correct solution for each clue. As a result, I opted for the “regular” version that notifies me immediately if I am making a mistake with red…

More than once during the early days of the COVID lockdown, I heard someone make reference to Anne Frank. The significance was obvious. As we Americans, who are so accustomed to being free, had to hole up inside our homes to save our lives, it gave us a window of insight into what it must have been like for a 13-year old Jewish girl. A girl whose family had to hide out in an attic apartment for two years to avoid being dragged off to a concentration camp where they would most likely be…